NASA has released a disturbing photo of the surface of Mars. We can see a “door” in the Martian rock.
If we talk a lot you rover Perseverance, present on Mars for nearly a year, Curiosity is still active on the red planet. Rolling down meters of regolith in the Martian dust, the rover continues on its way and takes different shots of the planet. One of the latest to date has also caught the attention of NASA, which is in charge of the mission.
Indeed, on this picture, we can see a “door” in the Martian rock. Published on Saturday, May 7, this photo from Curiosity shows in the background a rectangular opening, which seems to be several meters high. From our very human perceptions, the latter obviously makes one think of a door.
No secret door found on Mars, at least not yet
But according to the first experts who looked at the clichés, the little green men are not at the origin of this door “to a secret and underground world” as certain theories claim. Indeed, it is most certainly a simple fault made in the rock. According to our colleagues from Ciel et Espace, it could be a landslide resulting from the multiple fractures present in the rock.
According to Eric Bottlaender, a journalist specializing in space issues, it is only of a break in the sediments of the zone, which is very varied” he explains on his Twitter account.
If this discovery should therefore not change much during the Curiosity mission, it is worth remembering that this is not the first time that the general public has been fooled by such pictures. Indeed, on our satellite, the Moon, the Chinese probe Chang’e 5 had recently published a snapshot of a “rabbit” causing a stir around the world.
Pareidolia: seeing the known in the unknown
A few years ago it was already le rover Curiosity who was at the center of discussion when posting an image that some have interpreted as the portrait of a “flying spoon”. In reality it was a piece of rock carved and polished by erosion over the years. This phenomenon, called pareidolia, is very present in the analysis of spatial images.
Our brain, disoriented by the lack of known landmarks, will seek to find forms that speak to it. He will find matches in the shapes of a rock with a lizard, a rabbit or even the face of Jesus. This phenomenon, well known to the scientific world, can be observed on a daily basis by staring at the clouds. After a few seconds of attention, the human brain will release shapes from this white mass, and it will be very difficult not to see them anymore.